Library Books Enjoyed, 10/17/13

This is the 2nd Urgency Emergency! book we’ve read–the first one, which we heard at library storytime, involved a choking (Big, Bad) Wolf. This one has a spider who has suffered a serious head injury. I would consider this series in the category of “won’t work for everyone”–it’s kind of an odd mélange of explaining the way hospitals work and mixing up fairy tale characters–but I happen to find them quite funny, and my kids seem to enjoy them, too. One interesting quality with both of the ones we’ve read before is that something that is mentioned or happens at the beginning–but does not seem essential to the story–comes back to be important near the end. I think these would also be fun for those who are not quite reading chapter books but pretty fluently reading on their own.

My kids have become avid Pete the Cat fans, and this one is an easy-reader Pete adventure. I was a little surprised that Pete started off the story by being scared (in the picture books, part of the point seems to be that Pete isn’t flustered or upset by much of anything), but it was an enjoyable story, and the easy one-two-three approach to learning to surf amused me. We reread this one several times!

We found this on the new book shelf, and both my daughters LOVED it (and I loved that they both added another “la” and called it “Shoe La-la-la”). My son also sat through several readings without complaint. I think the girls mostly loved the different kinds of shoes and that the pictures involved glitter. I liked that, although the book was all about shoes and shoe-shopping, the girls’ final decision involved some creativity of their own. This is by the same author (although a different illustrator) as Ain’t Gonna Paint No More, and I was impressed that she conveys the same sense of fun in two completely different scenarios.